Steam and Sugar
by Haberdashing
Summary: Coffee shop AU one-shot. (Henry is an OC created by the wonderful seiya234.)
It was supposed to be an easy shift.

Sundays were generally quiet at the coffee shop, as were evenings; most customers came for their daily fix of caffeine before work or during lunch breaks, not late at night. And by and large, tonight had been no exception, with only one or two people in the store at any given moment, lines short to nonexistent.

Until he had come in.

Henry had only been working at the shop for a few weeks, and while he'd heard plenty of horror stories from his coworkers, he didn't have much first-hand experience dealing with problem customers. But if anyone fit the bill, this man did.

It seemed that Henry could do nothing right in his eyes; first the coffee was too hot ("Are you trying to burn my taste buds off, boy?"), then it had too much milk ("That looks like a damn sissy drink!"), then it wasn't filled up enough ("Now you're just trying to rip me off, aren't ya?"). He asked Henry's name, even though it was clearly displayed on his name tag, and threatened to call corporate ("I'll get your useless ass fired, you dumb kid, just you wait!").

Henry would have called a manager for back-up, but only one was on duty tonight and she was busy ringing out the cashier whose shift had just ended- and given that said cashier was the disorganized and talkative Clarisse and the manager was Monica, who was methodical and patient to a fault, it could be a while before either of the two emerged. Henry knew that he was doing the best he could, knew that he had nothing to worry about even if the customer followed through on his threat, knew that corporate had bigger concerns than an inexperienced cashier flubbing an order; that wasn't what made Henry's hands shake and his heart race, what kept him quiet and compliant as the man ranted and raved, what made him take the abuse with a smile plastered on his face. No, that was because the man's mannerisms, his phrase, his tone of voice set off old warning bells in Henry's mind, reminded him of another man who had carried out a number of threats much worse than sending a complaint to company management.

Then he heard another voice speak up, this one coming from somewhere behind the angry customer.

"Excuse me."

Henry leaned to the side until he could see the voice's source. He hadn't even noticed the young woman waiting in line, eclipsed as she had been by the man he was currently serving.

Henry shot her a sympathetic glance. "I'm sorry, miss, I'll get to your order as soon as I can-"

"No, don't worry about it. You're not the one who needs to apologize."

The customer who had been berating Henry turned around to face the woman. "You have something to say to me, girl?"

The woman looked the man right in the eyes, standing as tall as her small frame would allow. "I sure do. This man has been doing his best to make your drink, he's done all he can to please you- now, me, I'd have kicked you out five minutes ago. All this yelling is just wasting your time, his time, and my time. So knock it off."

The man stood up straight now, too, towering over the woman by at least a foot. "I'd shut up if I was you, little missy. Who do you think you are, talkin' to me like that?"

The woman didn't hesitate, didn't so much as blink before shooting off her response. "I'm the girl who's going to kick your butt."

There was fire and fury in the woman's eyes as she looked up at the other customer, but the man seemed unconcerned, sneering as he leaned over her.

"I'd like to see you try."

The man grabbed the woman's wrist tightly, and Henry rushed towards the end of the counter that opened onto the shop floor- he knew there was probably some rule against interfering in fights, and he wasn't sure what exactly he was going to do when he got out there, but he wasn't going to stand by and watch her get hurt...

He didn't see what happened, focused as he was on joining the fray, but by the time Henry had made it to the other end of the counter, the man was splayed out on the floor and the girl was standing next to him, hands on her hips and a grin on her face.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." She looked back at Henry for a moment. "You saw that, right? He touched me first. Totally self-defense."

After a moment of hesitation, Henry nodded in agreement and edged his way back towards his cash register.

"Are you gonna be nice now, mister?"

The man scrambled to his feet and ran out the door, literally ran, the bell on the door jingling merrily to signal his departure, a draft of cool air bursting in before the door eased its way shut.

The woman sighed, shaking her head before stepping up to the register as though nothing had happened. He could see her much better now that she was up close and not hidden behind the other man; Henry took in her thick magenta sweater that prominently featured a smiling sun wearing sunglasses, her lime green star earrings covered in glitter, her deep brown eyes and oh God she was gorgeous and he was suddenly aware of each and every stain on his uniform and his heart was racing for a different reason now-

"...some people, huh?"

Henry blinked a few times to reorient himself, but even after that, all he could manage for a response was a weak "...yeah."

"Do you need a break before taking my order? I'm in no hurry, really."

Breathe in. Breathe out. He was still on the clock. Back to customer service mode.

"No, no, it's fine. What do you want?"

"Mine's no biggie- just a large black coffee, but leave room for me to smother it in sugar." The woman giggled.

Henry pushed a few buttons on the register. "One large black coffee. That's it?"

"Yup!"

"That'll be two-ten."

The woman tilted her head to the side, long strands of brown hair falling onto her face in the process. "That doesn't sound right."

"I gave you the employee discount." Henry scratched the back of his head nervously. "Least I could do."

"Really? Thank you!"

The woman rifled through her wallet before handing him two crumpled singles and a dime. Henry smoothed out the two bills on the edge of the counter before putting the money away and getting the coffee ready.

"Do you get guys like that in here often?"

Henry gave a noncommittal shrug. "He's the first one that bad I've dealt with. Or you dealt with, really. Thank you for that, uh..."

"Mabel. The name's Mabel. And you must be Henry, unless you borrowed someone else's name tag for the day..."

Henry shook his head, a wry smile sneaking its way onto his face. "No, no name tag swapping here. Henry it is."

"Good to know." Mabel shot him a mischievous grin. "Maybe I should hang around here more, just in case another jerkface tries to pull something."

Henry laughed nervously. "I certainly wouldn't say no to that."

True to her word, the moment Henry handed over Mabel's coffee, she grabbed a fistful of sugar packets and started pouring them in- he lost track of how many she'd used after the count reached eleven, but he suspected that by the time she was done, the drink was as much sugar as it was coffee.

Mabel glanced up at Henry, then walked over to the table closest to the counter and took a seat facing the counter.

"Mind if I sit here and chillax for a bit?"

Henry broke into a wide, genuine smile.

"Mabel, you can stay here as long as you'd like."

He glanced up at the clock on the opposite wall.

"...or at least until we close at eleven."

He hadn't thought it had been all that funny, but still Mabel laughed, a boisterous, over-the-top laugh that rang out across the room, and it was the most beautiful sound that Henry had ever heard.


End file.
